Killers Of Couple In Andros Face Wait For Sentencing

TWO men must continue to wait before they are sentenced concerning their roles in the disappearances and murders of an Immigration Department officer and his girlfriend in Andros.

Zintworn Duncombe, 28, and James Johnson, 22, reappeared in the Supreme Court for the penalty phase of their trial, having been unanimously convicted in March by a jury of murdering Shane Gardiner and his girlfriend, Tishka Braynen.

However, reports from the Department of Rehabilitative Welfare Services – which were requested by the court – were still outstanding when Justice Indra Charles called the matter on Tuesday.

A new sentencing hearing date has been set for June 17.

Gardiner and Braynen were allegedly killed after a failed plot to take $8,000 in gambling winnings from the immigration officer. Braynen, of Cargill Creek, and Gardiner, who lived in Love Hill, both in Central Andros, were reported missing around 1.45pm on November 24, 2013. Gardiner had recently been assigned to the island.

On December 21, 2013, police in Andros discovered the remains of a man with “items related to a female”.

While the jury returned not guilty verdicts for alleged murder accomplices Daniel Coakley, 28, and Cordero Saunders, 26, all four men were unanimously convicted of double kidnapping, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and attempted armed robbery.

The Crown is seeking the death penalty for Duncombe and Johnson, which resulted in the requests for the production of a psychiatric report and social inquiry report with respect to the two convicts.

Duncombe, Saunders, Johnson and Coakley, who all denied the allegations, were respectively represented by lawyers Ian Cargill, Moses Bain, Donna Major and Terrel Butler.